Yahoo pushes for younger consumer via Fullscreen

Christina Medici Scolaro

Monday, 30 Jun 2014 | 2:48 PM ETCNBC.com

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Tech Yeah! Yahoo pushes for younger audience

CNBC's Josh Lipton discusses the phenomenon of multi-channel networks, or MCNs, which work with YouTube channels in exchange for ad revenue. Yahoo has put in a $250 million bid for YouTube content creator Fullscreen. With Sean Captain, Tom's Guide.

The multichannel network (MCN) space has the potential to be worth a lot of money. MCNs are companies that work with YouTube channels in exchange for ad revenue. The goal for most purchases in the space is to capitalize on the YouTube audience.

Yahoo is one of the latest companies to put in a bid to enter the MCN space. According to a report, Yahoo offered Fullscreen, a company that creates content for YouTube channels, about $250 million.

Source: Fullscreen

Screenshot from Fullscreen's website.

Yahoo can broaden its reach to a younger audience through the Fullscreen, which generates more than 3 billion monthly views on YouTube.

Sean Capital, senior editor at Tom's Guide points out Yahoo is a major portal and is the first stop for a lot of people in the morning, which can help the Internet giant capitalize on the purchase of Fullscreen.

"But if Yahoo wants to be a Youtube competitor, it's in for a hard battle. YouTube is the place people look for video of all kinds," Captain said. However, he added that it wouldn't be the first acquisition by a big tech or media company that fails to deliver, such as TheNew York Times' acquisition of About.com.

"Simply buying Fullscreen won't guarantee Yahoo that the viewers who currently watch on YouTube will follow. In fact, most won't. That, I think, would be the risk if this is a pure traffic/audience play. Instead, I'd hope Yahoo would see this as more of a way to build a more strategic video and content network of its own," said Christina Warren, senior tech analyst at Mashable.